Rotatable ring for elevating bowling pins



Feb. 25, 1964 Filed May 16. 1961 A. J. ALBRECHT ROTATABLE RING FOR ELEVATING BOWLING PINS '5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 25, 1964 A'. J. ALBRECHT 3,122,365

ROTATABLE RING FOR ELEVATING BOWLING PINS Filed May 16, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 25, 1964 A. J. ALBRECHT 3,122,366

ROTATABLE RING FOR ELEVATING BOWLI NG PINS Filed May 16, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent Ubice 3,1223% Patented Feb. 25, 1964 3,122,366 RQTATABLE RING FOR ELEVATING BGWLING PINS Alexander J. Albrecht, West Englewood, N..l., assignor,

by mesne assignments, to Brunswick Corporation, Chica e, lll., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 16, 19,61, Ser. No. 110,566 a Clm'ms. (Cl. 27343) This invention relates to a pin handling mechanism, and more particularly to a pin handling mechanism in an automatic pinsetter for a bowlin alley.

It is the general object of the invention to provide a new and improved pin handling mechanism of the character described.

Another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved pin handling mechanism for absorbing vibration and sound.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a pin handling mechanism for more efficiently and effectively handling bowling pins.

A further object of this invention is to provide a pin handling mechanism for more efiiciently and eiiectively handling tenpins and absorbing vibration and sound to provide a more tranquil environment.

A more specific object is the provision in an automatic pinsetter for a bowling alley of a pin handling mechanism having a pinwheel in the form of a ring of annularly laminated, facially abutting sheets for absorbing vibration and sound, the ring having an inwardly opening circumferential channel for receiving pins and being rotated for transferring the pins from a lower to an upper location, and means in the form of indentations in the laminated layers of the ring for retarding relative movement between the layers, the indentations forming protrusions extending into the channel for positioning the pins in the channel wherein adjacent pins may be overlapped to in crease the capacity of the ring.

Other objects and advantages will become readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a portion of an automatic pinsetter including a pin handling mechanism embodying the present invention, with parts broken away or omitted for clearer illustration;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevation of the pin handling mechanism illustrated in FIGURE 1, with parts broken away generally along the line 2--2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary side elevation taken generally as indicated by the line 3-3 of F1"- URE 2;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged section taken generally along the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged section taken generally along the line 5-5 of FIGURE 3; and

FIGURE 6 is a section taken generally along the line 66 of FIGURE 4.

While an illustrative embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawings and will be described in detail herein, the invention is susceptible of embodiment in many diilerent forms, and it is intended that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention is, in brief, directed to a pin handling mechanism illustrated in a preferred embodiment as incorporated in an automatic pinsetter. In the illustrated embodiment the pin handling mechanism provides means for conveying bowling pins from a lower location and depositing them at an upper location while retarding vibration and noise often accompanying the handling of heavy bowling pins. The present pin handling mechanism is of greatly simplified construction and provides for more rapid handling of bowling pins than has previously been obtained in automatic pinsetters.

Features and mechanism ancillary to the illustrated pin handling mechanism will be but briefly discussed, and reference may be had to United States Patent No. 2,967,708 for a more complete description of such related structure.

Referring to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, during nor may play of a bowling game bowling pins 10 fall from "b wling alley bed 11 into a pit 12at the rear end of the alley. L1 the illustrated embodiment a suitable pit conveyor 13, here a continuous conveyor belt mechanism, receives the pins it as they fall into the pit 12 and transfers the pins to a pin handling or elevating mechanism 14 for elevating the pins from a lower location in the pit 12 and depositing the pins at an upper location on a turn around pan or pin receiving tray 15. Tray 15 individually delivers each pin it to a suitable cross conveyor mechanism 16. In the illustrated embodiment tenpins having a body 17 of a first diameter and a narrower diameter head 18 connected to the body by a neck are delivered by the tray 15 to the cross conveyor mechanism 16 with base 17 leading and the head 18 trailing on the conveyor, irrespective of the position in which each pin it? is delivered by the pin elevating mechanism 14 onto the pin receiving tray 15. Pin receiving trays for performing this function are well understood in the automatic pinsetter art, and a suitable tray is fully described in the aforementioned patent. As illustrated, the cross conveyor mechanism 16 is in the form 033 a continuous conveyor belt mechanism.

Conveyor belts 13 and 16 may be mounted in any suitable manner as on rollers at opposite ends of each belt. As herein illustrated a motor (not shown), is connected to a gear box 19 and drives the cross conveyor belt 16 and an upper drive pulley receiving a crossed drive belt 2% for driving a lower drive pulley and therethrough the lower drive belt 13. As indicated by the arrows in FIG- URE l, the top span of conveyor belt 13 in pit 12 is driven toward the pin elevating mechanism 14 and the top span of the cross conveyor belt 16 is driven away from the pin receiving tray 15.

A continuous member, and in the preferred embodiment in the form of a rigid, circular ring 21 provides a pin wheel for elevating the pins 10, and is the main put of the pin elevating mechanism 14.

The ring 21 has means for dampening or absorbing vibration and sound caused by she pins 10 contacting the ring. Herein these means are in the form of a laminated ring construction, best seen in- EGURES 4 and 5, wherein circular sheets of a suitable metal, such as two steel sheets 22a and 23% are assembled in a manner well understood in the metal fabrication art to form a cross-:sec tionally U-shaped wall of annular lamina ed sheets in tight facial abutting engagement. The U-shaped wall forms an inwardly opening channel 23 for receiving bowling pins 1%. In addition to absorbing sound and vibration, a substantially stronger and more rigid ring is provided by the spun laminated construction. It should be noted that sound and. vibration absorbing characteristiw may be increased by additional laminae. The sheets are not bonded to each other, and in the preferred embodiment circumferentially spaced indentations 24 provide cans for retarding, and for all practical purposes preventing any relative movement between the sheets. By securing the sheets through means such as indentations, rather than by a homogeneous connection such as weld- 3 ing, or by riveting and the like, the vibration and sound and absorbing characteristics are increased.

:Circular ring 21 is mounted for rotation about its cen- 'ter axis, indicated by the reference numeral 25 in FIG- URE 2, and in a generally upright plane by means of rollers 26. IT his plane may be inclined, if desired. Each pair of rollers has a frusto-conical face and is mounted on a bracket suitably secured to a fixed frame of the automatic pinsetter for rotation about axes which position these faces for engaging cooperating spaced apart, circumferntial, inclined flat portions 27 on the ring 21 in such a manner as to elfe-ctively prevent sliding when the roller faces are rotating on respective inclined surfaces, to reduce wear. In the preferred embodiment three pairs of rollers 2c are provided, two pairs being at the bottom portion of the ring 21 on either side of the vertical diameter of the ring, and the third pair engaging an upper portion of the ring on one side of the vertical diameter, thereby firmly mounting the rin against axial and radial movement while permitting free rotary movement on the ring.

Means for rotating the ring 21 clockwise about the center axis 25 is provided by a ring drive belt 23 exten ing around a circumferential rib 29 on the outer periphcry of the ring 21. The drive belt 28 passes over a drive belt pulley 39 on a drive shaft suitably connected with the gear box 19, for driving the ring 21 at approximately 7 rpm. in the preferred embodiment. Circumferential rib 29 preferably has a convex crown engaging the ring drive belt 28, thereby tending to guide the belt on the rib and increasing the frictional contact between the belt and the rib.

As mentioned previously, in the illustrated embodiment the laminated ring 21 is spun into a channel-shaped configuration. As may best be seen in a EGURES 4 and 5, the channel 23 in the ring 21 opens inwardly toward the center axis 25 of the ring, and extends circumferentially of the ring for receiving bowling pins it). Upon delivery of bowling pins 16 by the pit conveyor mechanism 13 to the pin elevating mechanism 14-, the pins it? drop into the channel 23 with either the base E7 or the head 18 leading the pin in the clockwise direction of rotation of the ring 21.

It is during the deposit of the pins 19 in the ring channel 23 that the sound deadening feature of the laminated ring construction is of greatest value because a large number of pins may be tumbling at the mouth of the channel while other pins are being seated in the channel, and furthermore the wall of the channel would tend to act as a sounding board so that the sound deadening laminated construction substantially reduces noise.

As the pins tumble at the mouth of the channel 23 they are retained adjacent the mouth by an upwardly extending shielding board 32 extending upwardly from the bottom portion of the ring 21 to prevent the pins from falling rearwardly of the ring. Generally triangularlyshaped shielding boards 33 outside the bottom portion of the ring 21 also retain the bowling pins ll) within the pit 12. a

As the bowling pins 1% are received in the channel 23 they slide in the channel until each pin is seated by a protrusion formed by an indentation 24 extending into the channel. Protrusions 24 are spaced apart a distance less than the length of a pin '19", with adjacent protrusions defining pockets in the channel sufficiently long and wide to each receive a pin body. Each protrusion extends toward an opposite side of the ring a distance sufficient to provide a gap of a width greater than the diameter of a pinhead 18 and less than the diameter of a pin body '17 to seat the body. Each protrusion has a length of about half a pin length, or less. Therefore, when a pin is seated on a trailing protrusion in a direction with its body end 1% leading, its pinhead 18 extends through and beyond the gap defined by this protrusion and into the seat f9ll0 p The pins are in general circumferential alignment in the channel 23, and should adjacent protrusions 24 seat pins with their heads 18 directed toward each other the heads will overlap in the pocket between the adjacent protrusions, as illustrated in EGURE 3. Therefore, a larger number of pins may be handled by the ring 21 at one time. Since the outside diameter of the ring 21 is limited, in a practical sense by the adjacent bow-ling alleys, an outside ring diameter of about 59 /2 inches has been found to be the largest practical size, and nine protrusions may be provided in the channel.

In order to securely seat the pins in the channel, the channel conforms with and is just wide enough to fully receive a pin base 17 with the pinhead 18 free to move transversely of the channel to facilitate positioning adjacent pinheads overlapped. As may best be seen in FIGURES 4 and 6, the protrusions 24 have beveled ends 35 for gently guiding the bowling pins it As the pins are elevated in the ring 21 they are retained in the channel 23 by a pin wiper 34. Thus, means are provided for retaining and positioning the pins in general circumferential alignment in the channel 23 with adjacent pins partially overlapped if they are seated in the channel with their heads directed toward each other.

The preferred embodiment of the invention as herein described, handles American Bowling Congress standard rtenpins. Such bowling pins have substantially the same length and the body, up to the neck, is generally symmetrical and oval shaped, and thus whether a pin is being elevated head first or trailing, the pin is held in the same position in a pocket for uniform discharge onto the tray 15. With a pinhead trailing this is permitted by the head extending into the next pocket.

When adjacent pinheads overlap, one of the heads may protrude inwardly from the ring. Therefore means are provided resiliently mounting the pin wiper 34 for inward movement to permit a protruding head to pass. Herein these means are in the form of a leaf spring 36 connected at its ends to the pin wiper and at its center to a fixed portion of the pinsetter. Also, the leading end 37 of the pin wiper is arched inwardly of the ring 14 to guide a protruding pin into proper engagement with the remainder of the pin wiper 34. The trailing end of the pin Wiper 34 is so for-med and positioned to deliver each bowling pin It} onto the pin receiving tray 15. Arrangement of the pin wiper 34 and the pin receiving tray 15, as well as the general structure of t e pin wiper other than its ability to receive protruding pinheads as previously described, may be of any suitable or conventional nature understood in the art.

To summarize the operation of the automatic pinsetter, and the pin elevating mechanism 14 in particular, as bowling pins 19 are delivered from the bowling alley bed 11 into the pit 12 they fall upon the conveyor mechanism 13 which deposit them at the mouth of the lower portion of channel 23 in ring 21 of the pin elevating mechanism. Ring 21 is mounted for rotation in an upright plane about its center axis 25 by means of suitably spaced pairs of rollers 26. A belt drive mechanism for rotating the ring 21 clockwise is provided by driven pulley 3i and ring drive belt engaging the circu-mferentially extending crowned rib 29 of the ring 21. As the pins 10 are seated in the channel by protrusions 24, rotation of the ring 21 elevates the pins ill from the pit 12 and deposits them in pin receiving tray 15 at the top of the rin 21. By providing for overlapping of adjacent pinheads 18 a greater number of pins may be received in the ring at one time, therefore substantially increasing the capacity. of the pin elevating mechanism and the automatic pinsetter generally. Pin wiper 34 is resiliently mounted for receiving overlapping pinheads which might extend inwardly excessively from the mouth of channel 23. A the pins are received in the pin receiving tray, the tray functions to deliver each pin to cross conveyor 16 with the base 17 of the pin leading, and the pin is transferred to a suitable pin arrangement mechanism.

I claim:

1. In an automatic pinsetter, a rotating generally upright ring for elevating bowling pins from a bowling alley pit to an upper discharge location, said rin having an inwardly opening circumferential channel, said bowling pins having a generally symmetrical oval body lengthwise thereof with a head of a lesser diameter connected to the body by a neck; a plurality of protrusions in said channel extending inwardly from a side of said channel and spaced apart a distance les than the length of a pin to define a pocket between adjacent protrusions, each of said protrusions extending toward an opposite side of the ring a distance sufficient to provide a gap of a width greater than the diameter of a pinhead and less than the diameter of a pin body, each of said protrusions having a length of about half a pin or less to define a gap of a corresponding length, whereby a pin in a pocket traveling body end first will have the body thereof engaged by a trailing protrusion with the pinhead extending through and beyond the gap defined by said trailing protrusion into the net-rt following pocket.

2. An automatic pinsetter as defined in claim 1, in which the pocket is of a size to receive a pair of pinheads in overlapped relation.

3. In an automatic pinsetter, a roating generally upright ring having a diameter of approximately 60 inches for elevating bowling pin from a bowling alley pit to an upper discharge location, said ring having an inwardly opening circumferential channel, said bowling pins having a generally symmetrical oval body lengthwise thereof with a head of a lesser diameter connected to the body by a neck; nine protrusions in said channel extending inwardly from a side of said channel and spaced apart a distance less than the length of a pin to define a pocket between adjacent protrusions, there being a total of nine pockets, each of said protrusions extending toward an opposite side of the ring a distance sufiicient to provide a gap of a width greater than the diameter of a inhead and less than the diameter of a pin body and having sloped leading and trailing surfaces, each of said protrusions having a length of about half a pin or less to define a gap of a corresponding length, whereby a pin in a pocket 6 traveling body end first will have tie body thereof engaged by a trailing protrusion with the pinhead extending through and beyond the gap defined by said trailing protrusion into the next following pocket.

4. in an automatic pinsetter, a rotating generally upright ring for elevating bowling pins from a bowling alley pit to an upper discharge location, said ring having an inwardly opening circumferential channel defined by a thin annular wall formed of a plurality of layers of material, said bowling pins having a generally symmetrical oval body lengthwise thereof with a head of a lesser diameter connected to the body by a neck; a plurality of protrusions in said channel extending inwardly from a side of said channel and spaced apart a distance less than the length of a pin to interlock said layers of material together and define a pocket between adjacent protrusions, each of said protrusions extending toward an opposite side of the ring a distance sufficient to provide a gap of a Width greater than the diameter of a pinhead and less than the diameter of a pin body, each of said protrusions having a length of about half a pin or less to define a gap or" a corresponding length, whereby a pin in a pocket traveling body end first will have the body thereof ongaged by a trailing protrusion with the pinhead extending through and beyond the gap defined by said trailing protrusion into the next following pocket.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 638,554 Burton Dec. 5, 1899 2,237,623 Ledwinka Apr. 8, 1941 2,241,768 Deremer May 13, 1941 2,624,418 Bourne Jan. 6, 1953 2,767,983 Holloway et a1 Oct. 23, 1956 2,960,337 Johnson Nov. 15, 1960 2,967,708 Huck et al Jan. 10, 1961 2,972,479 Congelli et al. Feb. 21, 1961 3,009,484 Dollers Nov. 21, 1961 3,017,184 Gruss Jan. 16, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 562,192 Great Britain June 21, 1944 

1. IN AN AUTOMATIC PINSETTER, A ROTATING GENERALLY UPRIGHT RING FOR ELEVATING BOWLING PINS FROM A BOWLING ALLEY PIT TO AN UPPER DISCHARGE LOCATION, SAID RING HAVING AN INWARDLY OPENING CIRCUMFERENTIAL CHANNEL, SAID BOWLING PINS HAVING A GENERALLY SYMMETRICAL OVAL BODY LENGTHWISE THEREOF WITH A HEAD OF A LESSER DIAMETER CONNECTED TO THE BODY BY A NECK; A PLURALITY OF PROTRUSIONS IN SAID CHANNEL EXTENDING INWARDLY FROM A SIDE OF SAID CHANNEL AND SPACED APART A DISTANCE LESS THAN THE LENGTH OF A PIN TO DEFINE A POCKET BETWEEN ADJACENT PROTRUSIONS, EACH OF SAID PROTRUSIONS EXTENDING TOWARD AN OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE RING A DISTANCE SUFFICIENT TO PROVIDE A GAP OF A WIDTH GREATER THAN THE DIAMETER OF A PINHEAD AND LESS THAN THE DIAMETER OF A PIN BODY, EACH OF SAID PROTRUSIONS HAVING A LENGTH OF ABOUT HALF A PIN OR LESS TO DEFINE A GAP OF A CORRESPONDING LENGTH, WHEREBY A PIN IN A POCKET TRAVELING BODY END FIRST WILL HAVE THE BODY THEREOF ENGAGED BY A TRAILING PROTRUSION WITH THE PINHEAD EXTENDING THROUGH AND BEYOND THE GAP DEFINED BY SAID TRAILING PROTRUSION INTO THE NEXT FOLLOWING POCKET. 